$ . ,> .. .;;::.'-.:t . ,... ..'" .. h:"::J u),:: u i rt " :':L.. . .". . .:-- ::. '"';'. . . . - . : :: WS .:. f:?: -'." ?:: - i : ^ . } I f f". . :' , : .. r . . . . . .' , " f .. " . . .. ;.{ t ,::. r íl"I;:. :". :;.'ii:'!? :" ;;mu ::" :=::.. .:::':; :=::: ,;,,:,: ".:-." , '. f) , [::: "'.' .. . -- .... . -. "." .. . .. . , .. . . ..Y ." .".:. . ->> .: .:.'." . "'.:' :. =:=:". .-". :;"':: ". << n.:;. ;(:: ....:;:: :::: :.. . ::. ...:.;::: 58 : ï.{ .:":;;; :=: t ,: . ? ..:'""',g' ' "11an) 11 .." '>>;'fT [t) r "-. 'r il:: . , 4 :J TJ rltt I J i /i :g;. . :i t ..in....c ".;:.;,:x.. t. . t;. ". ..\. should have been on the outskirts "t,.,9t t of i :0 ;,o:e s ; ::s of women all across India had t! ;e e; \: : : ..m r the wife-beating and empty cof- fers that ensued, led to an Indian " L ' " Th d YSlstrata. e women emon- strated and protested, and many went on strike: no shopping, no laundry, no cooking, no sex. A number of state governments be- came alarmed and banned alcohol. But the women of Bhoonabai were timid; over half were still in purdah, and all were poor. They were glimpsed in the village only from time to time, returning from the fields or from the village well, balancing bundles of firewood or earthen jugs of water on their heads. Then slowly, almost im- perceptibly, they began to come out. Chaggibai organized a small demonstration against the liquor shop, which led to a larger one. Scores of women had soon multi- plied into hundreds, from all the nearby villages and towns, and eventually they blockaded the highway; transforming it into a sea of color as they sat cross-legged, hidden behind their veils. Others, who were accompanied by equally outraged vil- lage men, stormed the liquor shop and smashed its bottles with their broomsticks. At this point, Mohan Singh and Cha- ran Singh and the other Rawats, who had variously tried to flatter or coerce or otherwise control Chaggibai, must have known that they had no alternative: she had to be removed. Her fortunes were not helped when, during a training camp last summer for panchayat members, she and Mohan Singh got into a screaming match over the fate of his liquor store. As state-government officials looked on, stunned, Mohan Singh and his men at- tempted to assault her, Chaggibai said. She filed a criminal complaint. A month or so afterward, Mohan Singh-a prosperous man-invited nine of the panchayat's twelve members to ac- company him on a pilgrimage to the sa- cred temple of Ramdeora, near the me- dieval city of Jaisalmer. They prayed and they feasted, and the following day they returned to Rasulpura and, contrary to all nùes of procedure and form, held a meet- ing without inviting Chaggibai and two ....:>. , :,'w"""""'""$ '.' < . ......... r? "'">:.>:"". 'hi.,- :;] . -; ....... THE NEW YORKER, JANUARY 10,2000 J W' $" '1'm supposed to be someplace downtown right now, sucking the air out of the room. " furious. When he was sarpanch, all the meetings were held in secret, mostly at his home." The crowd was so large that it spilled out of the panchayat building and Into the village square and its tiny lanes; some people even perched in the trees. When Charan Singh realized how many women had shown up, his anger turned to rage. "He began shouting," Chaggibai went on. "He said, 'Why are women re- qUIred? Go back to your villages at once!' And all the women left." Chaggibai and her growing army of women and Dalits began to mobilize. The women went from door to door, some under the protection of husbands or sons; some were in purdah, others were not. Since the point of panchayats is to give villagers control over local develop- ment schemes, planning, and spending, Chaggibai was determined to find out precisely what the villagers of Rasulpura considered their greatest needs. The vil- lagers, from all castes, responded, largely enthusiasticallr "Look at what I inherited." Chaggibai pulled a sheaf of papers from her briefcase and waved them in the air. "Unfinished projects. Pending projects. Chaos. Anarch " She then proudly enumerated some of her own accomplishments: she had cov- ered a number of village drains (which 1V: ..-::.;::=;: . . .,... . .... ---- .... . ... - ......-. - .. \ # __ . .- . .. t.. '; .,, ' . ( ... I"'-\! ) : ?:f., . i . . had posed acute health hazards, she said) and repaired a school building and some roads; she had completed the panchayat building-so that meetings could now be held in open session-and a small irriga- tion project. She also refused to sanction the embezzlement of village funds. "She did away with all the unnecessary frills of the panchayat," Sister Carol said. "She even stopped tea-drinking," an- other woman chimed in. "Tea!" Chaggibai flailed her arms, and her voice began to rise. "Charan Singh and his friends each drank, on average, five cups of tea every time they met- that means sixty-five, sixty-jive cups of tea, with four spoons of sugar each." She quickly calculated. "Do you have any idea how much that costs? It costs the equiva- lent of ten books for children in school." Not surprisingly; Charan Singh and his protégés on the panchayat were becom- ing increasingly alarmed. The duty of con- trolling Chaggibai was delegated to the deputy sarpanch, a Rawat named Mohan Singh. He owned a liquor shop just down the road, in the center of the village of Bhoonabai-a bustling trading point that forms part of the Rasulpura panchayat and sits on the main highway connecting Ajmer to Jaipur. According to existing law; Mohan Singh's liquor shop was illegal-it